ose and said a few words
concerning a _projet de decret_ that had just been proposed, against
those who should assemble the people in numbers. These words, in the
mouth of Petion, who was well known to be the friend of Brissot and the
conspirators, were at first received with sarcastic cries by the _cote
droit_, and then with loud applause from the _cote gauche_ and the
tribunes. The victory of the Champ-de-Mars was already contested in the
Assembly, and the clubs re-opened that evening. Robespierre, Brissot,
Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Marat, who had for some days past
disappeared, now took fresh courage, for the hesitation of their enemies
reassured them,--by constantly attacking a power that was contented to
remain on the defensive, they could not fail to weary it out, and thus,
from accused they transformed themselves into accusers. Their papers
abandoned for a short time, became more malignant from their temporary
panic, and heaped ridicule and odium on Bailly and La Fayette. They
aroused the people to vengeance by displaying unceasingly before their
eyes the blood of the Champ-de-Mars. The red flag became the emblem of
the government and the winding-sheet of liberty. The conspirators
figured as victims, and constantly kept popular excitement on the rack,
by imaginary stories of the most odious persecutions.

XVII.

"See," wrote Desmoulins, "see how the furious satellites of La Fayette
rush from their barracks, or rather from their taverns,--see, they
assemble and load their arms with ball, in the presence of the people,
whilst the battalions of _aristocrates_ mutually excite each other to
the massacre. It is chiefly in the eyes of the cavalry that you behold
the love of blood aroused by the double influence of wine and vengeance.
It was against women and babes that this army of butchers chiefly
directed their fury. The altar of the country is strewn with dead
bodies,--it is thus that La Fayette has dyed his hands in the gore of
citizens: those hands which, in my eyes, will ever appear to reek with
this innocent blood--this very spot where he had raised them to heaven
to swear to defend them. From this moment, the most worthy citizens are
proscribed; they are arrested in their beds, their papers are seized,
their presses broken, and lists of the names of those proscribed are
signed; the _moderes_ sign these lists, and then display them. 'Society
must be purged,' is their cry, 'of such men as _Brissot_, _Carr